Dear WICR Membership,

It is an honor to serve as the Chair of the Women in Cancer Research (WICR) Council for the 2024-2025 term. I hope to continue the inspirational leadership that Dr. Beverly Lyn- Cook brought to us during her term. It has given me great joy to work with our outstanding council members as well as AACR leadership and staff to develop programs that inspire and advance all women in cancer research.

As we celebrate Women in History Month, we wanted to be sure to highlight WICR’s upcoming programs focused on the AACR Annual Meeting all the work that is being done to inspire, encourage and recognize women in the field. As a member of the AACR- WICR leadership, we hope to recognize the innovative discoveries, passionate leadership and bold strides that our members have made spanning all stages of their careers. This year our thematic programing will focus on our leadership journey as women in cancer research across all career paths (academia, industry, and government). We are pleased to have an opportunity to incorporate this theme in our programming for the AACR Annual Meeting 2025, we hope these programs will enrich everyone’s growth as a leader across all stages of career development.

The AACR Annual Meeting 2025 theme is “Unifying Cancer Science and Medicine: A Continuum of Innovation for Impact”. We hope that you will join us for the fantastic lineup of programs we have planned, meet with the council, congratulate the WICR Scholar awardees and attend the many sessions WICR has sponsored and collaborated with Victorias Secret, Minorities in Cancer Research, Associate Member Council and Science Education and Career Advancement Committee. There is no better time than now to get involved, reach out to your peers and build our community of women in cancer research! We encourage you to join WICR as a member, be a mentor or join one of our committees.

Please reach out via email ([email protected]) should you have any questions or feedback for us. We look forward to seeing everyone in Chicago in 2025!

Warm regards,

Shiva Malek, PhD

WICR 2024-2025 Chairperson